LA Knights & Emerald Flame: Stolen Youth
by Cyclone
Summary: Mayor Richard Wilkins III is not an idiot and adapts accordingly.
1. Chapter 1

Title: L.A. Knights/Emerald Flame: Stolen Youth (1/2)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Mayor Richard Wilkins III is not an idiot and adapts accordingly.

Author's Note: This story occurs after Emerald Transitions.

* * *

"Well, gosh," Mayor Wilkins frowned at the latest report. There was simply no way he could trust the contractor he had initially planned to use. An operation in Sunnydale was simply too risky at this critical juncture. "Allen? Call Mister Manners. It appears I'll have to outsource."

* * *

It wasn't much of a Batcave. Los Angeles simply didn't have the kind of underground tunnel network one found in Gotham City - or Sunnydale, for that matter - and the sewers, he had found, were crawling with all sorts of deadly unpleasantness.

So, Jarod Bruce made do with a fallout shelter that had been built into the foundations of his new home during the Cold War.

At the moment, he was going through some surveillance footage. Ever since his revelation about vampires, demons, and the supernatural - something which, admittedly, explained a **lot** once he accepted it - he had been gathering as much information as he could. Not just from the mythology found in books and other accounts, either. It struck Jarod as odd that the Batman of the comics was so steadfast in his refusal to acknowledge the mystical side of the world he lived in. Jarod himself found himself engrossed in the subject, yearning to dissect it and understand it. Even the pretender couldn't understand Bruce Wayne's recalcitrance on the matter. He had planted concealed cameras in a number of locations where he hoped to observe any rising vampires.

In short, he had cameras hidden in cemetaries, funeral homes, and morgues, as well as more logical locations for a crimefighter. He was currently viewing footage from St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, where a recent viral outbreak had killed 21. He was looking for anything out of the ordinary. He soon found it.

As he watched, he saw four very much alive infants brought into autopsy. The hospital personnel seemed to go into a trance as the infants were passed off to someone who had been conspicuously absent when the quarantine was lifted.

He brought up other surveillance footage from the area, tapping into traffic cameras and other security footage. The "Batcomputer" was a serious piece of hardware, one Jarod had assembled by hand, utilizing cutting edge technology, and it was only a matter of time before he found Mystery Man's exit from the hospital, getting into a 1968 Chevrolet Corvette C3 driven by a man Jarod recognized all too well. None of the people manning the quarantine line even blinked as he walked right by, which further cemented in Jarod's mind that something supernatural was amiss. For that matter, so did the fact that the driver in question didn't bat an eye at his cargo.

He had never met him before, but he was familiar with the professional transporter. Harming or trafficking children was a line **that** man would never cross.

For now, though, he had a car to trace.

* * *

The large man entered the darkened Sunnydale hotel room.

"Bandit."

The big man didn't give the intruder the satisfaction of seeing him startled. Instead, he slowly turned and glared. "A little early for Halloween costumes."

"I'm here to discuss your most recent job," Batman declared.

Bandit grunted.

"I just thought you'd like to know you were duped into kidnapping babies." Batman laid a videotape on the bed and dropped out the window.

* * *

"Hey, Giles."

The Watcher jerked in surprise, then scowled at the young man who had intruded into his apartment. "Xander?"

"We need to talk."

"Couldn't this have waited until morning?"

"Suspended, remember?" Xander said. "I'm here to talk about Buffy's birthday in a few weeks."

"What about it?" Giles frowned, concealing his agitation.

"I'm referring to the Cruciamentum," Xander said, his gaze pinning the Watcher in place. "Don't. If it happens, those behind it will **not** like the consequences. And that applies to you too, Giles."

"Xander, I..."

"Go ahead and warn them if you must, Giles," he said. "They won't listen. But you'd better."

Xander turned and left the apartment. He hated having to do that to Giles, especially so soon after basically hijacking Ms. Calendar for Egeria, but it had to be done. Minutes later, he hovered over Sunnydale's warehouse district. The vampire population was well under control, thanks to the coordinated efforts of Willow's Birds of Prey and the Green Lanterns' regular patrols, but a new nest would still pop up from time to time and need to be cleared out.

He cocked an eyebrow. _Well, **that's** something you don't see every night,_ he thought as he watched Batman battle two vampires.

* * *

Batman swayed to the side, avoiding the vampire's strike even as he caught its arm and flipped it over his shoulder. He could have dusted the vampires as readily as he had the other three, but he needed information.

He suddenly ran up to the other vampire, pinning it against the wall just long enough to strike it kidneys. The vampire curled up, and he bent down. "You know what I want," he hissed in its ear.

His internal sense of the battle warned him that the other vampire had likely recovered from the throw, and he looked up, only to see it intercepted by a giant glowing green hand wrapping around it. He looked up.

"Your form is perfect, Batman," Green Lantern declared. Batman noted it was a young man rather than the young lady he had met previously. "But you need to learn to fight dirty." The green hand construct squeezed. The result was not for the squeamish, but quickly crumbled to dust.

He turned to his remaining information source, only to see it decapitated by another green construct. Whirled at Green Lantern, Batman grabbed him by the front of his shirt. "They had information I needed!"

His gaze was met by a pair of cold, brown eyes. "They were **vampires**, Batman," Green Lantern declared. "You can't make deals with vampires." With that, he shrugged free of the caped crusader's grip and flew off.

* * *

"Mrs. Summers?" Xander blinked in surprise as he poked his head into Rebecca Baxter's room. "What are you doing here?"

Joyce turned and gestured to the bedridden witch. "I wanted to check in on Rebecca, see how she's been doing, considering what happened."

Xander nodded in understanding.

"How was your patrol?" Rebecca asked.

"I ran into someone I wasn't expecting," he said with a shrug.

The two women looked at him blankly.

"In fact," he added, "he should be dropping by pretty soon, so I'd better head down to greet him when he does."

* * *

"So, pretty quiet tonight," Buffy declared. She and Cordelia - Black Canary and Huntress - were patrolling Shady Hill Cemetery. So far, they had dusted one riser, and she hadn't even gotten a decent workout from it.

"Well, duh," Cordy snorted. "We've been cleaning house, and the Green Lanterns don't leave much for us."

Buffy crossed her arms and pouted, "I still say I could have handled that nest."

"W-why bother?" a third voice came from behind them. They turned to see the third Green Lantern - Tara - behind them. "I mean," she shrugged, "this is about getting the job done, isn't it? Not... not glorifying ourselves. Why take the chance?"

Buffy took a moment to consider that question. Aside from some vague idea that it was her duty as the Slayer, she couldn't find a concrete answer. Finally, she said, "Because if we don't know our limits, how can we push them?"

Cordy snorted again. "Oh, come on, Canary, be honest," she said, her voice dripping with derision. "You're disappointed because you think it's fun."

Buffy stopped in her tracks.

_No way!_ she thought. _That... can't be why. Can it?_ She scowled as Cordy waved a hand in front of her face.

"What?" she snapped.

"What's with you two?" she asked.

"Nothing," Buffy grumped. She paused. _Wait. "Two"?_ She looked at Tara, who looked pale. "Tara, you okay?"

"The wards," she said. "Someone tripped the wards, someone who isn't keyed into them. Something followed Xander home."

* * *

Faith snored. She didn't usually snore before, but then again, until recently, she didn't usually sleep in such a comfortable bed. Cortana was an okay chick in her book, and Xander... well, Xander was certainly worth a roll if he would stop being so stubborn about it.

But just because she was comfortable enough to snore as she slept didn't mean she let her guard down, so when she heard glass breaking followed by the sounds of violence, she was moving before she was fully awake. Her power ring glowed, and energy swirled around her nude body, forming into her uniform as she literally flew down the stairs.

The tableau that greeted her was a recipe for confusion. She saw Xander and Mrs. Summers staring incredulously at Buffy, Cordelia, and Tara, who were in full costume and apparently ready to deliver a righteous beatdown on...

...Batman?

"What the f*ck is going on here?"

Her words were almost all the distraction Batman needed. Almost.

The dark knight **moved**. There was no other way to describe it. He had already disarmed Huntress and tripped Black Canary before Xander's power ring flared, lifting him up into the air.

"Not so fast, Batman," Xander said, annoyed. "What the hell are you doing in my town?"

* * *

Through the commlinks Buffy and Cordy were wearing, Willow was listening to all this and, quite frankly, freaking out.

Why the hell was Xander pulling a Batman on Batman?

_For that matter,_ she thought, _since when was there a real Batman?_

* * *

Jarod cursed himself for not thinking this through when he had placed that homing beacon on Green Lantern. He was up against Green Lanterns, two - he caught sight of the girl who had descended the stairs and provided his distraction - make that three of them, and their rings obeyed their user's will. As such, he was going nowhere... for now.

"I'm on a case," he growled, "one which you so handily disrupted earlier."

"Making deals with vampires is a good way to get yourself and a lot of bystanders killed," the male Lantern said evenly. "What's the case?"

Jarod considered the question. This confrontation, from what he had read, appeared to be nonsensically traditional at the beginning of so-called "team up" events, and attempts to "go it alone" in another hero's territory generally proved futile, at least without permission.

"Kidnapping," he relented. "Four infants. Concealed under a glamour as victims of a viral outbreak. I tracked the man duped into transporting them here."

Xander frowned as he processed that. There was something about the timing of this that seemed disturbingly famil-...

The Mayor.

"I see," he said, releasing Batman from his construct.

"Buffy Anne Summers, what do you think you're doing?"

Xander winced. Joyce had finally gotten over the shock of the situation and was reacting... unfortunately predictably.

Buffy quickly hurried over, taking her mother's hands in her own and guiding her to the couch. "It's okay, Mom," she said as they both sat down. "I know what I'm doing." Xander surreptitiously shooed the others outside.

"You-" Joyce stared at her daughter for a long moment. "You know what you're doing? Buffy, you're prancing around dressed like a comic book superhero. I thought you outgrew this years ago."

"Okay, honestly, the costume is new, but come on, Mom. What do you think has been going on for the past three years? The fights, the weird occurrences. How many times have you washed blood out of my clothing, Mom? Good God, I **told** you about vampires, and Xander **showed** you and took you to **Mars**, and you still haven't figured it out?"

"I... I think I need to sit down."

"You are sitting down, Mrs. Summers," Xander offered helpfully.

"Oh... good..." Joyce took a moment to digest what her daughter had said, then glared at Xander and demanded, "Just what the hell do you think you're doing, dragging my daughter into all this?"

"MOM!" Buffy snapped. "Xander didn't drag me into anything!" Her voice softened as she added, "I dragged him in. Mom, I'm the Slayer. It's what I do. It's who I am. The-the gym at Hemery? It was a master vampire named Lothos. Well, his minions, anyway."

"And I'm supposed to believe that outfit you're wearing **wasn't** his idea?"

Buffy blushed and looked down, mumbling, "Actually, it was Willow's."

Joyce actually stopped and blinked at that. "Willow?"

Buffy nodded.

She shook her head and said, "I do wonder about that girl sometimes."

"I don't," Xander muttered tolerantly.

* * *

"Hey!"

* * *

The male Lantern stepped out into the back yard where the others were gathered. "Black Canary won't be joining us tonight," he declared. "Family emergency." He tossed an earbud to Batman and said, "Put that on. It'll put you in contact with Oracle."

Jarod's eyebrow quirked up as he fitted the earbud into place. Oracle? Huntress? Black Canary?

Perhaps the brunette was right. Comic books **were** becoming more relevant, far more so than he would have imagined.

"Now," the male Lantern said, "time for introductions. You can call me Hal." He nodded at the brunette. "Jade." He waved at the blonde Lantern. "Arisia."

Jarod was familiar enough with the comics to recognize "Hal" for the pseudonym it was. Jade and Arisia, though, he hadn't read of yet - his focus had been on his own persona - but he was certain they were aliases as well.

"Fair enough," he said. "You can call me Bruce."

"Hal" snorted and rolled his eyes, coughing under his breath, "Yeah, sure, Mistah J."

Batman frowned.

Hal turned to the three women and said, "Huntress, you and Batman go lean on Willy. Jade, I want you there to back them up in case it gets out of hand; don't go looking for trouble. Or causing it. Arisia, I need you to finish cleaning out that vamp nest in the warehouse district."

"And where are you going?"

"I'm going to tap some other resources," he answered. "Play a hunch or two."

"I'm coming with you," Batman growled.

Hal turned and growled right back at him, "No, you're not. You'd only slow me down." With shark-like grin, he added quietly, "Just **pretend** you trust me." He turned and flew off.

That sent a chill down Batman's spine. Whoever this Green Lantern was, he **knew**.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

It takes a lot to keep Jarod off balance.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: L.A. Knights/Emerald Flame: Stolen Youth (2/2)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Mayor Richard Wilkins III is not an idiot and adapts accordingly.

Author's Note: This story occurs after Emerald Transitions.

* * *

Xander hovered over Wilkins Manor. Contrary to the way it had almost seemed sometimes the last time around, Wilkins didn't actually live at City Hall. He did, however, work very late nights; some of his most significant contributors, after all, lived on nocturnal schedules.

He considered his next move. He had picked up a few things about entering secured buildings from Batman - that is, Terry McGinnis, in that other world he remembered - certainly enough to fool or disable any electronic security he had, and his power ring could mimic keys, rendering mechanical security irrelevant, but it was the mystical security that was the real threat. Not only was he ill-equipped to bypass them, but they likely held far more lethal consequences.

After another long moment of deliberation, he shrugged his shoulders and began his descent. There was something to be said for the direct approach.

The door swung open.

"Hello," he said politely to the man who had opened it. "I'd like to speak to Mayor Wilkins. Is he available?"

* * *

"So, what's the story with this 'Willy's'?"

Cordy looked over at Batman. Faith had given them a lift, and they were now standing in front of Willy's. She wasn't comfortable with Batman - she was well aware of her alter ego's rocky relationship with Batman in the comics - and she was having trouble wrapping her head around the idea that someone was crazy enough to do this without powers and without coercion.

She herself, of course, was most definitely being coerced. She wasn't quite sure **how** Willow had coerced her into this, but she most definitely had.

"Local watering hole for the demons around town," Willow's voice answered over the commlink. "It gives them an option besides eating people and serves as a useful information source."

"I see," Batman nodded. "Do we go in hard or easy?"

Cordy glowered and answered by kicking the door open.

* * *

"You know, I'd actually been wondering if you needed sleep," Xander said conversationally. "After all, you have your daily duties as well as your more, ah, nocturnal supporters to see to."

"Oh, I do," Wilkins nodded politely. "A few hours here and there. Not much, but everyone needs a little sleep. It keeps a man sane. Lemon drop?"

"No, thank you," Xander waved off the offered candy.

"So," Wilkins said, "I'd sort of been expecting you to drop by to see me eventually. How can I help?"

Xander shrugged and said, "Well, actually, I just came by to lay down some ground rules."

"Oh?"

"Yes. I want to make something very, very clear to you," Xander said, an edge in his voice. "I know you'll become invulnerable a hundred days before your Ascension; I also know a dozen different ways to make you regret that invulnerability. I know how big and how powerful you would become if you successfully go through with your Ascension; I also know that I will still be able to pick you up and throw you into a star."

"I see," Wilkins answered, suddenly not smiling.

"Now," Xander said, leaning back, "I haven't done anything like that yet because you're useful - you generally keep a lid on things around here - but this whole 'kidnapping babies' thing isn't something I can let slide."

"Well, gosh," Wilkins frowned, "then we have a bit of a problem. After all, Lurconis has kept his end of the deal. It just wouldn't be right for me to try to welsh on it. I still have to pay him."

"Not if he's dead, you don't."

"That's an intriguing suggestion."

"Like I said, you're useful, and those babies are what matter right now. So, where. Are. They?"

Richard Wilkins was many things: a loving husband, once; a caring surrogate father, in another world; a reasonably honest politician, shockingly enough; a powerful dark sorcerer who had sold his soul as a small part of a bid to become an all-powerful True Demon, capital T, capital D. However, he **wasn't** an idiot, he **wasn't** invulnerable (yet), and he **was** sitting across from a man with a weapon that literally gave him the power to crush him like an insect with a thought.

He answered.

* * *

"...and there's a new vamp nest setting up in a warehouse by Pier Thirty-One," Willy babbled.

Cordy had to admit. She was impressed.

"And?" Batman growled.

"A Belgari demon and an illusionist just hit town. I don't know where they are, I swear, but I'd start at the Motor Lodge."

"**And?**"

Willy fumbled for a moment, then whispered, "And I wet my bed until I was fourteen."

Cordy placed a hand on Batman's shoulder. "I think we've got all we're gonna get from him."

As the three of them left, Faith murmured, "Not bad."

"And what would you have done?" Batman asked.

Faith shrugged. "Dunno for sure," she admitted. "Probably just fly him off and play a little catch."

"Crude," Batman said after a moment's consideration, "but probably effective."

* * *

"So, what next?" the illusionist asked as he lay back and paged through an issue of GSM Magazine. "I was thinking of heading to Vegas. Play the card tables. You?"

The Belgari demon shrugged. "Not sure, Timothy. San Francisco, perhaps. I hear the Charmed Ones have awakened there."

Timothy turned the page and snorted derisively, "And you want to go **looking** for them?"

"I've got quite a few specimens I've been dying to share with someone like them," the demon answered with a feral grin.

"You do that, and you're on your own, buddy," Timothy warned his partner as he turned the next page. "I didn't last this long by picking fights with chosen types. I'm just glad we haven't run into the Slayer yet."

It was then that the door crashed open.

* * *

Xander found them exactly where Wilkins had said they would be. A quartet of vampires held the kidnapped infants in a large underground chamber that connected to the sewers. Torches ringed the chamber, giving it a medieval atmosphere.

_Those wacky Public Works people,_ he thought dryly. _Does every city sewer system come complete with sacrificial altars?_

The vampires were dust before they even knew it, and as he scooped up the infants, he paused as Lurconis emerged from one of the larger sewer tunnels and reared his head, roaring in anger.

"Well," Xander said, resigned, as he looked up at Lurconis, "I've been meaning to brush up on my giant-snake-killing skills." With a focused thought, he formed a six foot long Bowie knife construct and declared, "Now **that's** a knoife."

It was at times like this that he missed E. Sure, they still met to train in the Dreaming, but it just wasn't the same. She was never one to let a line like that pass, and what good was a joke if there was no one to appreciate it?

Admittedly, that was for a rather flexible definition of "appreciate," and even he had to admit that it was a pretty lame line.

And, admittedly, it also said a great deal about his sanity that he actually **missed** the voice in his head.

* * *

Batman, Huntress, and Jade approached the Sunnydale Motor Lodge when a young man burst out the window from one of the rooms, running for dear life.

He paused as he skidded to a halt in front of them. He looked at the three costumed heroes.

"Great," he sighed, a note of resignation in his voice. "First the Tarrack daemonling, now this. And I'll just bet one of you ladies is the Slayer, right?"

"Actually, no," Cordy said, raising her crossbow. "She had to sit this one out."

"That makes me feel **so** much better," the illusionist muttered sarcastically as he threw up a glamour; nothing fancy, just enough to add an extra touch of sincerity and harmlessness. "I should point out," he said, quite honestly, "that I'm just a human bystander here who's running because a demon and a half-demon are brawling in my motel room."

There was a loud crash as a huge man hurtled through the wall and into the street. An even larger demon stepped out carefully, almost daintily avoiding the rubble. Harmless green energy washed over both of them.

Faith's power ring chirped and said, "Scan complete. Subject: Belgari demon. Subject: Tarrack daemonling."

"Oracle?" Cordy prompted.

"Belgari demon," came the reply over the commlink. "Possesses a natural ability to store and culture various diseases within their bodies, highly resistant to physical damage... silver will work, but magic's more reliable."

"And the Tarrack?"

"Tarrack daemonling. Human half-breed, prone to violence, extremely strong and resistant to damage. No special vulnerabilities. Just brute force." She paused and added, "I'd be very careful. Most Tarrack daemonlings don't survive to adulthood due to their violent tendencies. This one must be very smart and strong-willed."

"Joy," Cordy snarked. "A walking cootie factory and the poster boy for 'roid rage."

Timothy watched as the trio turned their full attention to his erstwhile partner and his opponent. With a quick whisper to make himself seem less important, he tried to slip away, only for Batman to negligently toss a set of bolas around his legs, sending him toppling to the ground.

Batman stepped forward and hissed, "Bandit."

The human-looking of the two, the Tarrack daemonling, turned and glowered, "Batman."

The caped crusader tilted his head - first to the Belgari demon, then to the human off to the side - and asked, "These the ones who hired you?"

The Road Buster nodded.

"Good."

The three heroes turned their attention to the Belgari demon.

* * *

"Hi, guys," Xander greeted the other heroes. The four infants were sleeping soundly in the construct baby carriage trundling along in front of him.

Batman glowered. Xander smirked.

Faith created a construct hand that smacked him upside the head.

"Ow!" he muttered, rubbing the back of his head. "What was that for?"

"You could have mentioned you found them," she retorted.

"Oh," he said. "That. Yeah, it was a human sacrifice thing. Four vampires, no trouble, really. Oh, and the demon they were being sacrificed to, a giant snake demon called Lurconis."

"What happened to the demon?" Cordy asked.

"I made like Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets," he answered. He paused. "Wait, is that book out yet?"

Batman frowned. "Where did you get a phoenix?"

There was dead silence for a long moment, and Faith turned on him. "Okay, seriously. A few months ago, you didn't even know who **Batman** was, and you know **Harry Potter?** What is **wrong** with you?"

"Be nice, Jade," Xander reprimanded. "He had a very deprived childhood and is just trying to make up for lost time. And for the record, I meant I went stabbity stabbity on it with a large sharp object."

Faith sighed. "What was the quip?"

"'Quip'?" Xander repeated innocently.

"You don't go facing down a big bad without a quip," she said, crossing her arms, "so since you had no audience, what was it?"

"I wouldn't exactly call Lurconis a big bad," Xander hedged. "It's not like he had any intentions or ability to end the world or even devastate a significant portion of real estate."

"He was gonna eat babies. That's bad enough."

"True."

"So what was it?" she asked, tapping her foot impatiently.

"It really would lose something in the retelling," he said. "You kind of had to be there. The context is what sets it all up."

"You know the ring has a playback feature," Faith pointed out.

Xander froze. "How do you know that?"

"Cortana was showing us your greatest hits while you were in Japan."

"Damn it, Cortana," he muttered, hanging his head, "stop copying Willow and recording things you shouldn't."

"Wait," Cordy said.

_Oh, thank you, Cordy,_ he thought fervently. _I love you._ He frowned at the amusement glittering in her eyes and the sinister smile on her face. The combination inspired a deep-rooted sense of impending doom.

In truth, he remembered that look rather fondly. From about this time the last time around at that. It had been **so** worth it then.

Now? Not so much.

"Canary should see this too," she declared.

* * *

"'Now that's a knife'?" Buffy deadpanned. Her head whipped around, and her gaze pinned Xander to the couch. "You call that a quip?" she asked incredulously.

"I didn't call it anything," he grumbled, pouting as the girls snickered.

"Hey, Xander," Willow spoke up. "I've been meaning to ask you something."

"What, Will?"

"With Batman," she said, "why'd you use the name Hal Jordan? I mean, you're the first of a new generation of Green Lanterns. Wouldn't Kyle Rayner have been more appropriate?"

Xander shook his head. "I met Kyle once, in the other world. He was retired by then, of course. That kind of power... it never leaves you, not completely. It changes you. But even with those side effects, he's still human, still mortal." Xander's eyes took on a far-off look as he continued, "He was a good man, Will, and it... it just wouldn't have felt right to use his name."

Silence filled the room, the humor leeched out as they remembered what Xander would never forget. Along with his power ring and the future knowledge that had helped them so far, he carried with him memories of a life he could never return to.

_And also,_ Willow recalled soberly, _of a love forever lost._ Her gaze flicked over to Tara, and her thoughts turned to what Faith had said about them. _I wonder, do either of us really have a chance?_

* * *

Jarod paused in the darkened parking garage. The garage was in a building he now owned, and it was almost completely deserted.

Almost.

It took him half a second to identify the man leaning, arms crossed, against the support pillar near his car.

"Sergeant Spartan," he said. "Can I help you?"

"You know," John Spartan started, "I called the DEA, Mister Bruce. Apparently, they never heard of Agent Jarod Watts." He stood up and confronted the now-wealthy man. "So, who are you really, Jarod?"

"Someone who's making a difference."

"That's not your job," John snapped.

"Then whose is it?"

With that, Jarod got into his car and drove off.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

I'm not completely satisfied with this one for some reason, but I just can't put my finger on why. Oh, well.


End file.
